Re-Post

Saturday, June 7, 2014

The new (and insane looking) Falcon's Fury ride at Busch Gardens has been delayed so they can ensure everyone's safety (thank heavens!). In the meantime check out the new food options near the ride area (between the carousel and the German Brauhouse). BACON PRETZELS!! Did I mention they are also offering craft beer flights here too! (Although it was sad to see the old spider claw ride go away).

And for some whimsical charm, don't forget to look up for your beer mugs and chairs....

Sign above the entrance to the new Falcon's Fury Area.

I recommend the fury bacon pretzels, the bacon was of a very good quality (think: neuske) and you can see they weren't overly salted which helps. The beer cheese dip was meh - should be served warm and not cold, but nonetheless a unique spin on your typical amusement park food. This place will be crazy busy and it was nice to see some shaded areas, adirondack chairs and lots of areas for people to wait while others are in line for the fury ride. I'm going to leave it to someone else to review that ride, I'd rather not plunge face first towards the ground for fun.... you will find me munching on my bacon pretzels and sipping my beer instead :)

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees. ~Henry David Thoreau

This is part 3 of 3 of my posts about our recent trip to the Disney's Magic Kingdom. I wanted to do one final post about our fun stay at the DisneyTreehouse Villas! If you did not yet read posts 1 and 2, check them out HERE.

When I was very little (circa 1979) my family stayed up in a Treehouse at Disney and I will always remember how much awe I was in staying in this circular home up in the trees. Here is a wonderful blog recap by George Taylor that I came across with plenty of photos of the "old" treehouses with the spiral staircase going up the middle and the retro marketing they did to beckon corporate trips. I wish we had photos of our family vacation from back then but my memories were definitely reinforced by our recent stay!

A few years ago I tried to research the treehouses and was sad to hear they had closed them down. Thankfully, Disney brought back the magic a couple of years ago and rebuilt 60 of these beautiful pieces of natural heaven and connected them to their Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa right on disney property! They used the original footprint and locations and theme but made some changes with access doing away with the spiral stairs and shag carpets :0. When I came back across the treehouse idea I knew instantly it was what I TRULY wanted to do for at least one night of our mini-vacation and it was an opportunity for us to get to spend a day visiting with my family. The treehouses sleep up to 9 people which was perfect for our group! They are located just across the water (but tucked into the trees) from Downtown Disney. The secluded cabins in the sky are 10 feet off of the ground with a base structure in the very center

Here are a few pictures from our fun day and night around the treehouse and resort, you can see the floor to ceiling windows really gave a gorgeous view!

Each treehouse comes with a deck and patio setup to enjoy the outdoors comfortably.

A fully stocked kitchen with seating for 6 at the indoor dining table, 4 at the outdoor table plus a bench, and 3 at the breakfast bar counter makes it easy to enjoy a family meal.

Each treehouse also has its own BBQ grill right downstairs so we enjoyed an awesome dinner!

This was the water view from the family room- we were right next to the boat dock that ferries guests over to the main resort area and downtown disney.

The resort also had some fun extra activities that we got to enjoy too! My sister in law Elizabeth Sniegocki took these great shots of my nieces enjoying the evening s'mores campfire at the main part of the resort and the fun water slide at one of the three pools!

Here are another great link with details about the treehouses from Disney. In addition, Jack Spence does an amazing blog about all of the resorts, etc at disney - this great post includes neat construction pics of the remodel of the treehouses and detailed photos of the inside too that make it easier to see the inside layout more than my handful of pics do - check it out here.

Finally, on a fun disney-esque ending note - I want to share a favorite story involving a tree of sorts. This short story below was written by my brother Joe and his wife Robbin as part of our wedding gift 16 years ago. I love this whimsical story and the pictures it conjures up in your mind of a suessical disney'esque world that we all dream to live in. I hope you enjoy this too, leave a comment and let me know!

(You may want to click on the scanned in picture to enlarge and better read the story).